Friday, April 04, 2014

Liberia: 'One Dentist Serving 700,000 Patients in Liberia'

By Mae Azango, 21 March 2014http://allafrica.com/stories/201403210875.html?viewall=1
Monrovia — "In Liberia, we have seven
dentists, one to seven hundred thousand and we have fifteen counties and
twelve out of those counties, do not have dentists. In JFK, we will
have 10-15 deaths yearly," Dr. Ayele Ajavon Cox.
As a way of creating awareness, World Oral Health Day on Thursday was
observed at the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare where school
children teeth were cleaned and hundreds of toothbrushes and toothpastes
were distributed among the pupils.
Celebrating the first world oral health Day in Liberia, Dr. Ayele
Ajavon Cox, DMD Hygienist Dental Therapist/practitioner, known to be the
foot soldier in collaboration with Smile for Liberia, observed the day
through the reaction of awareness.
Looking at Liberia's statics of one Dentist to seven hundred Thousand
and her own story of how she became a foot soldier, Dr. Cox said ninety
percent of the world suffers toothache sixty percent have access.
"Why I am the foot soldier is because when I was 12 years old, my
cousin Yede Baker and I lived in Grand Cape Mount County with her father
and my Uncle JDK Baker. And one year he decided to bring my cousin and I
to Monrovia because all during the year we were complaining about our
teeth. There were no roads to Monrovia, only boats and canons, but we
walked two days to come to Monrovia because my uncle said the boats and
canoes were safe to travel. And we arrived in Monrovia to a Dentist
called Dr. Townsend and he extracted our teeth."
She said it was then, that she realized that she and her cousin were
lucky because they had the opportunity to see a Dentist. "There were
several others in Cape Mount who would have never been able to afford a
dental treatment. So I decided to become a dentist. This is why I am the
foot soldier."
Mrs. Yah Martor Zolia, Deputy Minister of Planning and Research
Development, Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, gave the keynote
address under the theme: 'Do you know that your oral health could affect
your overall body health?'
She said the aim of the day is to create a need for a robust
sensitization campaign locally and internationally. According to her,
ninety percent of the world population will suffer oral health problems
in their lifetime, which could be avoided.
"The incident of oral cancer is between one to ten cases per hundred
thousand in most countries, because oral cancer is the eighth most
common form of cancer in the world and the most costly to treat.
Therefore, we need a robust oral health sensitization campaign because
the risk for oral cancer, is fifteen times higher when the two main risk
factors which are tobacco and alcohol consumption which are common in
Liberia."
She said Liberia needs this campaign because over ninety percent of
children here have not seen a dentist or had a dental treatment. "We
need it because we have only seven dentists in Liberia and the ratio is
one dentist to seven hundred thousand persons. A free government
support, health and association, societal support, forming of
prevention, infections and treatment programs can help avoid these
problems. We also need to create relevant social programs to sensitize
the public."
At the program, little Daniel Ireland, gave a testimony of his friend who died from toothache.
"Our friend had teeth and we told our grandmother and she sent him to
see Dr. Cox at JFK for treatment and after his treatment, he was due
back to the hospital on Monday when Dr. Cox did not see him at the
hospital, she called Grandma, and when Grandma called his home to find
out what happened, she found out that he was taken to the sick bush.
Grandma made them bring him back to the hospital, but sadly a few days
later, he died. The people in the community said it was poison because
tooth could not just kill people like that."
Kormassa Baysay, a baby mother who had toothache when she was
pregnant, also gave her experience during her pregnancy but she
survived. Dr. Cox said they don't normally give pregnant women
antibiotic, but due to Kormassa's case that survived a surgery, she took
very strong antibiotics and it did not harm the baby whom she named Mr.
JFK.
Dr. Taylor Neal, who is another Dentist said he and Dr. Cox are the
only two Liberians dentists in the country and they are nearing
retirement because they are old and cannot go on forever. "We are fading
out, so we need more dentists and many of the Liberian dentists are in
the US, so the government will have to offer salaries that will attract
them home to come and work."
Some recommendations at the end of the program included calls for the
ministries of health and Education to infuse oral health into the
school's curriculum. Thus, many believe to make more medical persons be
trained locally and internationally to become a Dentist.

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About Me

Martin Jablow DMD, is America's Dental Technology Coach. He practices general dentistry in a group setting in Woodbridge, NJ. Dr. Jablow promotes the use of technology in the dental office to improve efficiency and patient care. He lectures and writes articles on the use of technology to enhance the practice of dentistry. Dr. Jablow can be reached by email at marty at dentaltechnologycoach dot com